BOT move, second virus wave cast shadow on SET

A stock analyst at Krungsri Securities expected the index to fall between 1,350 and 1,355 points before rebounding.
“Commercial banks and non-banking entity stocks were under pressure from the Bank of Thailand’s order to hold off paying interim dividends and buying back shares to strengthen their capital ratio in response to the Covid-19 fallout,” the analyst said.
“Meanwhile, investors were worried about a second wave of Covid-19 after the number of new cases rose sharply, especially in Brazil, the US and India.”
He said the index would rebound as energy and petroleum stocks gained positive sentiment from the rising crude oil price and mass buy-offs in super savings funds for tax deduction.
“The price of crude oil rose almost US$40 [Bt1,238.82] per barrel after the number of active oil rigs in the US dropped by 10 to 189, while the Opec+ grouping is working on cutting oil production,” the analyst said.
He recommended investors buy the following stocks:
▪ Energy stocks that benefit from the rising crude oil price, such as PTT, PTTEP, TOP, PTTGC, IRPC, SPRC, and IVL.
▪ Stocks whose second-quarter performance will improve, such as CKP, Tasco, STA, and RS.
▪ Marine shipping stocks that benefit from the rising freight rate, such as PSL, TTA, AMA, and PRM.
The SET Index dropped by 2 points on Friday (June 19), or 0.16 per cent, closing at 1,371 due to the FTSE All World move to reduce the weight on Thai stocks. Total transactions amounted to Bt63 billion.
Net sale by foreign investors amounted to Bt4.037 billion in stocks and Bt2.131 billion in bonds. There were 9,418 net short TFEX SET50 contracts.